Malus
is a character in Castlevania and Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness. He is a mysterious young boy who claims to have been kidnapped from a nearly village and brought into the castle. Character's history Background After Dracula was defeated by Cornell, the man-beast was forced to shed his powers to save his abducted adopted sister Ada from his clutches, with the Dark Lord, having intended to gain these powers all along, being satisfied. Afterward, Dracula's proxies (Gilles de Rais, Actrise and Death) following instructions given to them prior to his defeat, managed to recover the man-beast powers that were trapped in a crystal and used them to ensure Dracula returned in a new body. He ultimately did in the form of a boy with blue hair and blue eyes, having been born to a couple in a forest cabin on a clear night after seven torrential storms under a blood moon. His birth, as well as his destined defeat at the hand of two people who inherited the powers to fight the Devil, had been prophesized by an Eastern Orthodox Priest. ''Castlevania On his eighth birthday, his Dracula self had fully awakened via a destructive melody. Dracula's proxies (Gilles de Rais, Actrise and Death) have been kidnapping small children and bringing them to Castlevania, due to it being prophesized that children of Darkness would arrive at the castle and one of them would become Dracula. At the request of the Church, Henry Oldrey rescues the majority of them. Reinhardt Schneider and Carrie Fernandez interact with one such child, a young violin virtuoso named Malus. He appears to be the child of noble parents, being dressed in ornate but slightly worse-for-wear finery. They first encounter him in the hedge maze, as they are stalked by the Gardener and two hellhounds. Before the monsters make their appearance, Malus asks the player for help, stating that the village was burned and he was kidnapped with the rest of the children. He then says that he has a headache and can't remember anymore. Then the monsters show up and he runs away. With the player's help, Malus is led to safety. The hero next encounters Malus in the Castle Center, where it seems the child has gone mad. After asking peculiar questions and making disquieting statements about Dracula, he runs deeper into the castle before the heroes can investigate. If the player reaches the Castle Keep before fellow vampire hunter Charlie Vincent, the quest will extend beyond this level. After defeating a vampire assumed to be Dracula, the aerie begins to crumble. As they attempt to escape, Malus attacks them with a bow and arrow while mounted atop a demonic flying steed. After following him, the players see a horrific transformation: Malus ages, becoming an adult, and worse, a vampire. The vampire in the Castle Keep was Gilles de Rais disguised as the Count, while Malus is the true reincarnation of the Dark Lord. After Dracula is defeated, his body transforms back into that of a child. Malus looks around and wonders what happened, seemingly oblivious to the events that just transpired. As the player moves to help him, Charlie Vincent arrives on the scene and douses the child with holy water. Malus writhes in pain when exposed to the blessed substance. Vincent explains that the child is not possessed, but is a master of deception. Malus transports the player to an alternate dimension for a final battle, having transformed into his true form, a centipede-wyvern hybrid, in which he is ultimately defeated. Upon his defeat, Malus/Dracula, while roaring in agony from spontaneously combusting, ends up being sucked into a dark vortex that forms below him in the middle of the battlefield (presumably leading to Hell), while the player character, bracing themself from the resulting sandstorm, avoids looking at him. If the player does not reach the Castle Keep in time, Charlie Vincent will be caught and vampirized by de Rais, forcing the player to defeat him in battle. Without Vincent's assistance, the hero fails in their mission: they are fooled by Malus' act and rescue the boy instead of destroying him. Even though Malus is never fought in his child form, the player is forced to fight his "other" true form, Dracula. Trivia *The Latin word ''malus means "evil". It is also the root of the word "malice". *After saving her from an attempted suicide and then refusing to slay her, Rosa calls Reinhardt "soft" for not bringing himself to kill a vampire in the shape of a child, and wonders how he could ever hope to stand up to Dracula. This is possibly a hint to Dracula being disguised as the child Malus. *Malus was the first reincarnation of Dracula adopting a different persona before Soma Cruz (although both characters exist in different timelines). The main difference between the two, however, is that Malus embraced his true identity as the reincarnation of Dracula, while Soma Cruz ultimately rejected this path. **Coincidentally, Soma after being revealed to be Dracula's true reincarnation upon defeating Graham Jones has similar features to Malus, or rather, the latter's adult form. *Malus, or rather, True Dracula's boss theme is the same as Actrise and Rosa. *Despite his true nature as a vampire, Malus possesses several aspects to him that are uncommon to vampires: **Malus is apparently unaffected by exposure to sunlight, as in the bad endings, as well as the first meeting with Malus, he is shown in the daytime without any noticeable effects. **Malus, while still affected by weapons such as Holy Water to the extent of giving him agony, seems to be otherwise resistant to them, as after being exposed by Charles Vincent via Holy Water, he merely gets up and taunts them before warping them to face them in his true form. *Malus, or rather, Dracula's final form being part-dragon is most likely a reference to how "Dracul", his adopted name, meant "Son of the Dragon" in old Romanian, which was a reference to his real-world basis's father Vlad II, who was inducted into the Order of the Dragon. *''Legacy of Darkness's ending's reference to Malus's true powers as Dracula awakening with a destructive melody was most likely a reference to the title screen for ''Castlevania 64, which featured a shot of Dracula's castle before cutting to Malus playing the violin. Footnotes External links *Konami of Europe's Malus profile (Internet Archive) * es:Malus Category:Antagonists Category:Dracula Category:Dracula Relatives Category:Male Characters Category:Vampires Category:Castlevania 64 Characters Category:Legacy of Darkness Characters